Hiraeth ✔

| 01 | Pridian

This book was made in 2020, and Chuuya's backstory - STORM BRINGER - was publicized in February of 2021, I plan to keep the plot the same as planned last year (which means I'm disregarding that light novel.) So please think of this as an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.

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- HIRAETH ONE -
| PRIDIAN |
adj; of or relating to a previous day or to yesterday

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Atsushi Nakajima
October 25 - 3:30 AM
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ONE pale hand scrunched into a tumble of light gray hair as purple-yellow segmented eyes were slowly opened. The boy's asymmetrical bangs swept through his fingertips, where was he?

The ground felt frigid and stony. The boy felt raindrops on his exposed skin, it was rain. Rain that fabricates a sweet yet sulky pattern upon his clothing.

Speaking of such, his clothing was.. rather familiar. They were shaggy gray-stained blue rags that was often issued at the orphanage. Orphanage...

"The orphanage?!" The boy panicked and looked at his entire appearance. His body shrinked? No.. He, more or less, had turned back to his past self's body?

"That's impossible.. What about the Detective Agency? Fukuchi? The book?! Wait- Akutagawa!" He yelled, before realizing he was reaching out at nothing.

"He.. He died.. Akutagawa died saving me.." He thought, curling into a ball.

The boy felt weak, his guilt sat not on his brain but on his heart. The all-to-familiar pain in his chest was agonizing, overflowing with negative emotions.

The man he despised for being so ruthless.. The man who promised to kill him in the next few months.. had sacrificed himself in order for the boy to escape. How ironic could that be?

The ironicity and yet, with all the regret he was enduring, his mind and memories had been set ablazed. "But.. wait.. who's... Akutagawa again?"

"My name is Atsushi Nakajima. I've suddenly been sent into the past and somehow retain most of my former memories but.. after one blink of an eye..

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I never noticed that I've lost them."

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"Hey.. hey..! Wake up!" Atsushi felt light taps on his chin while a voice called out to him.

Forcefully opening his heavy eyelids, his eyes met with a young boy, probably 9 to the eyes of the white-haired child.

He had brown shaggy hair, similar to the color of his chocolate eyes. His friendly voice was rather enticing that Nakajima wanted to stay with him right away. Of course, he's too shy to say all those mushy stuff.

He was wearing a loose gray hoodie, a red shirt and plain black pants. Most of them looked kind of big for him but Nakajima didn't utter a word about it.

"Oh, looks like you ain't dead yet. Good!" He clapped, "Alright now, what are you doing here?"

"Here..? Uhm.." Atsushi scratched his chin, "I.. ran away."

"Eh?" The older boy tilted his head, "A runaway too?"

"Too..?"

"Oh yeah!" He exclaimed, bending down to the boy's height, "I escaped a really scary lab, bet you can't do something like that.!"

Atsushi only stared at him at curiosity, unintentionally getting a reaction the boy didn't expect.

Surely people would tease and say things to him that he was some deceitful brat or much worse, a liar.

Was this boy for real? Then maybe.. maybe..

"Hey, so um.. you're a runaway too, right? What place did you leave from?" He asked.

The white-haired boy pouted, "An orphanage.."

"Ooh.. Then you either have a shitty headmaster or some pathetic playmates."

Atsushi's frown grew heavier, burrying his face on his legs. The other boy felt a little guilt, "D.. Did I say too much..?"

"N-No, it's fine, Mister.. I just.." His faint sobs suddenly came to fill their ears, tears dripped from his eyes, merging with the raindrops. "It's just that.. I don't know where to go.. I'm too weak.. I'm useless.. How was I able to run away from the orphanage anyways..?"

The brown-haired boy couldn't help but symphatize with the boy. Being feeble and a life deemed pointless would be hard on a 7 year old, especially if such things were worded out to you.

They weren't different but they weren't exactly the same either.

That's when the other boy's frown became a slight smirk, "Whether you say that or not.. Then I'll-"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous Sheep Rogue." Two people suddenly came to the view, one was a built-up man while the other was a spunky woman.

"Eh, the who?" The one besides Atsushi snarled back.

"Don't be foolish, boy. I'm part of the Port Mafia, that stupid get-up won't get you anywhere away from us." The woman grinned, playing with the knife in her grasp.

"After I had all the effort to wear this crap, you'll just spit out my identity like that, oh kind ma'am?" The boy who Atsushi had just met declared.

Taking off his eye contacts and what seems to be a wig, the face right before Nakajima's eyes felt like he was staring at the sun.

He had scorching fiery orange hair that looked burning to the touch. Contrast to that, the boy in front of him had eyes similar to that of the ocean, so full of life yet so uncertain.

"Chuuya Nakahara, Age 11, Birthdate April 29 20XX, a laboratory experiment as a new vessel under the permit of the Japanese Government Authority. Escaped three and a half years ago and dubbed by the public as the Sheep Rogue." The buff man says, gripping tightly on his chains, "You've got a lot working for 'ya, kid, but I'm afraid that solo life ends here."

"Chuu..ya-san..?" Atsushi mumbled, turning his head to the said person. The name felt familiar and yet he couldn't make out why.

"Thanks for that introduction there, buddy, but.." Chuuya, the name of the boy from a while ago, said confidently, "..I ain't coming with you."

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| HIRAETH ONE - PRIDIAN
| Written On: Nov. 9 - 10, 2020
| Published On: Nov. 18, 2020

‹ You just got duked, that ain't Dazai ! ;-; ›